Pictet North America Advisors SA Sells 1,123 Shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Pictet North America Advisors SA decreased its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by 0.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 154,219 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,123 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 2.4% of Pictet North America Advisors SA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Pictet North America Advisors SA’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $23,848,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,000. EQ Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Navigoe LLC bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Campbell Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Alphabet in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $57,000. Institutional investors own 40.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Friday, April 25th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $189.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Alphabet from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alphabet has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.95.

Alphabet Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ GOOGL opened at $176.79 on Tuesday. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $140.53 and a 1 year high of $207.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.15 trillion, a P/E ratio of 19.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $169.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $173.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.79. Alphabet had a net margin of 30.86% and a return on equity of 34.54%. The business had revenue of $76.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 9th. This is a boost from Alphabet’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Alphabet’s payout ratio is 9.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.87, for a total transaction of $5,553,275.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,620,196 shares in the company, valued at approximately $447,712,890.52. The trade was a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,192,275. This trade represents a 8.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 215,643 shares of company stock worth $36,330,928. 11.55% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.